Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

yeah i think to an extent it's enough that the industry treated an album like an event whether or not the public really perceived it that way

everything here is an album a lot of people bought from an artist who'd already enjoyed massive success - that's event plenty.

mc hammer and vanilla ice seemed to be dismissed upthread as one-album wonders who by definition can't have a new jersey moment but if spiceworld makes the final cut, then why not too legit to quit?

i think m@tt made a good point that VIce doesn't really count but Hammer prob does

lol i remember the word hammer coming up but it wasn't until you wrote Too Legit To Quit out - first time it's been mentioned by name - that I actually remembered that album and not just please hammmer don't hurt 'em. soooo included, really glad it came up specifically now. Thank you!

ha ha, welcome!

If Third Stage was Boston's New Jersey, are you saying that Don't Look Back was their Slippery When Wet? Clearly, the first s/t album was their SWW, right?

(why I nominated Don't Look Back originally)

though someone should definitely do a poll of the prince albums that have hit double platinum (1999 and purple rain are the only to go further)

"Around the World in a Day" (1985), 2-times Platinum
"Diamonds and Pearls" (1991), 2-times Platinum
"Emancipation" (1996), 2-times Platinum
"Batman (soundtrack)" (1989), 2-times Platinum
"Musicology" (2004), 2-times Platinum

― da croupier, Thursday, 9 August 2012 16:38 (Yesterday) Permalink

notable one of those is a 3CD and another was given away with concert tickets

― da croupier, Thursday, 9 August 2012 16:39 (Yesterday) Permalink

and Batman was helped by the movie and Around the World by Purple Rain.

Diamonds as the only one to get there under its own steam?

― mr.raffles, Thursday, 9 August 2012 16:41 (Yesterday)

Didn't the "Cream" single get a major bump when Billboard switched to Soundscan sales figures while it was climbing the Hot 100 chart? I seem to remember hearing that the song wouldn't have reached #1 under Billboard's old sales reporting system.

(But I mean I wasn't there: maybe the hype was really intense for Third Stage as an event album.)

The too legit to quit video was a huge event

If Third Stage was Boston's New Jersey, are you saying that Don't Look Back was their Slippery When Wet? Clearly, the first s/t album was their SWW, right?

it's more about the end of a run than that they literally only had two big hit albums.

Since some of the stuff appears to gets a little close to fairweather johnson territory, I'll note that only three albums are actual sophomore albums, and all had 3 or more top 20 hits on then. The rest all had at least two platinum records to their credit before their "new jersey."

3 or more top 20 hits on them, i mean.

so basically none of the 33 or so albums listed were an immediate flop follow-up to a flash in the pan

I move that third stage be replaced with don't look back

(Seconded)

weird to think BJ (lol) had 2 pre-Slippery albums, but of course "Runaway" is a classic.

will just repost the logic for third stage

(4x platinum #1 album with two top ten hits including one #1, despite coming eight years after the last album. However, in 1987, Boston had gone 9x platinum, Don't Look Back 4x platinum and Third Stage 4x time platinum. Today, Boston is at 17x platinum, and Don't Look Back is at 7x platinum. Third Stage remains at four, and the follow-up, Walk On only went Platinum).

saying Don't look back is a new jersey kind of ignores that they not only failed to have a career decline but were actually able to just show up and say HAY eight years later and have a #1.

Has anyone ever heard 7800 Fahrenheit?

no. the guy who mixed it did it with the monitors off

Speaking of Boston, does anyone have access to back issues of Musician Magazine? (I'm pretty sure it was Musician. Maybe Trouser Press, but I doubt it.) Their vicious review of Don't Look Back was one of my favorite.

i did see this awesome, awesome video from it on a Bon Jovi video retrospective my library supervisor taped off MTV (along with Bowie's Glass Spider special!) that I discovered when housesitting for her in the early '00s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6Y4xSa0HY

Yeah, I know that one single from it but that's all I've ever heard.

I see your logic with Third Stage. Don't Look Back does feel pretty hollow to me except for the title track, though, more so than NJ, in fact. (Quick: name another song from it.)

well i only know "more than a feeling" by name anyway, but it's probably more surprising i don't know any of the 3 pop hits off Third Stage than that I don't know any of the 70s radio stuff off DLB.

well i only know "more than a feeling" by name anyway

Either this is a typo or you're not the man I thought you were!

actually able to just show up and say HAY eight years later and have a #1.

Yeah, I'm not sure that Third Stage was that big of an event either and that the success of "Amanda" and the album wasn't due to its own breakthrough.

well yeah i could probably hear a song, notice the repeated phrase and say "I'm guessing this is Boston because they have a song called Don't Look Back and this sounds like Boston saying 'Don't Look Back' a lot" but yeah I've never really dug into their work.

and further discussion of which multiplatinum w/ hits album from an established act was or wasn't an "event" will be met with "your mom's an event"

I could understand not knowing "Don't Look Back" but "More Than a Feeling" has to be one of the most-played songs on American rock radio. I don't believe that you only know it by name.

haha woops that IS a typo sorry. it's late!

Phew.

It's like the first thing identified as what's being discussed in the thread title. And it seemingly refers to albums that were "events" upon release as opposed to defining event as some long term thing when something becomes popular over time.

my point is that rather than have people say "gee that album didn't feel like a big deal to me," we're going to accept that a multiplatinum album with hits from an established artist was clearly an event to a good number of people.

besides, the lesser of the 33 albums will likely have goose eggs beneath the TRUE NEW JERSEYS when the poll is done

I think it's possible to argue that eight years away WAS a significant type of career decline even if they had a surprising comeback eight years later.

please tell me you just really want to vote for Don't Look Back being the Best New Jersey

No, it took a long time for them to do Don't Look Back and then I know they had legal troubles and that was part of why they didn't put out another record for a long time, but I don't know if it was the whole reason. Point being that Don't Look Back does feel like the album that signaled something significant with their career arc and not Third Stage.

alright i'm changing it to don't look back because i'm already being enough of a bossypants and i don't want people biting their pillows tonight but i'm going to be bummed if you hosers ignore it come voting time.

the current list o' 32, fair and true - will give it a night to see if someone has a brainflash or feels strongly that Butterfly is Mariah's New Jersey not Rainbow and then post the poll in the morning.

Garth Brooks, Sevens (10x platinum)
Celine Dion, Let's Talk About Love (10x platinum)
Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue (8x platinum)
Bon Jovi, New Jersey (7x platinum)
Eagles, The Long Run (7x platinum)
Boston, Don't Look Back (7x platinum)
Guns'n'Roses, Use Your Illusion I & II (7x platinum each)
Creed, Weathered (6x platinum)
Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavored Water (6x platinum)
Journey, Frontiers (6x platinum)
ZZ Top, Afterburner (5x platinum)
50 Cent, The Massacre (5x platinum)
U2, Rattle & Hum (5x platinum)
Billy Joel, River Of Dreams (5x platinum)
Bob Seger, Against The Wind (5x platinum)
R.E.M., Monster (4x platinum)
Eminem, Encore (4x platinum)
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, The Art Of War (4x platinum)
Genesis, We Can't Dance (4x platinum)
AC/DC, For Those About To Rock We Salute You (4x platinum)
Lionel Richie, Dancing On The Ceiling (4x platinum)
Spice Girls, Spiceworld (4x platinum)
U2, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (3x platinum)
Paula Abdul, Spellbound (3x platinum)
Def Leppard, Adrenalize (3x platinum)
Mariah Carey, Heartbreaker (3x platinum)
Huey Lewis, Fore! (3x platinum)
Foreigner, Agent Provocateur (3x platinum)
Rod Stewart, Blondes Have More Fun (3x platinum)
Hammer, Too Legit To Quit (3x platinum)
New Kids On The Block, Step By Step (3x platinum)
Nickelback, Dark Horse (3x platinum)

Wait, so did Dangerous not make it? I feel like it hits all the checkpoints here - ditto For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Would also like to suggest Phil Collins's ...But Seriously, an 8x platinum followup to the 12x platinum No Jacket Required, featuring several moderate singles which haven't ever displaced the NJR hits in his canon and which have largely disappeared. (Unfortunate - "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" is my favorite Collins solo joint!) Next album: down to single platinum, no big hits. The one after that (a late-coming attempt at a world-music crossover) merely made gold.

Pretty sure if the poll is for the "most New Jersey," Use Your Illusion is more NJ than NJ itself. But "best," now that's tricky. I guess I'm gonna have to start queuing all these records up in Spotify...

Third Stage probably didn't feel like an "event" because there were no videos for it--or at least none that MTV put on rotation. You probably had to be a FM Rock fan for it to feel eventful.

Third Stage was the first album I thought of here. Big "event" because of the 8-year wait, because "Amanda" had just topped the charts, because i remember how disappointed my Boston-t-shirt-wearing friend was when the full album was first played on the radio. And....

- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)
- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)
- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)
- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)
- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)

Wait, so did Dangerous not make it? I feel like it hits all the checkpoints here - ditto For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Michael Jackson, like the Stones, has been saved by the "every album is an event" clause. You could say his decline was bad, dangerous, the second disc of History - it's all subjective as to when it was "a bit hollow" because all weren't thriller and all were events.

I don't think For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge works because the ones before and after basically sold as well, and they kept having mainstream rock #1s throughout. And if you want to play the "hollow" game, you could do it for any album once Hagar joins. And I'm sure everyone has their delightful opinion about when Van Hagar stopped being an "event."

Would also like to suggest Phil Collins's ...But Seriously, an 8x platinum followup to the 12x platinum No Jacket Required, featuring several moderate singles which haven't ever displaced the NJR hits in his canon and which have largely disappeared. (Unfortunate - "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" is my favorite Collins solo joint!) Next album: down to single platinum, no big hits. The one after that (a late-coming attempt at a world-music crossover) merely made gold.

I dunno if you missed it, but Genesis' I Can't Dance has been on the list as the Phil pick for two days. Bottom dropped out after that, not But Seriously.

- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking)

That's the thing - I'm worried

sorry, cut off.

I'm worried this is just becoming "the album after the biggest hit".

the one argument i will say in Dangerous's favor is that its sales were nearly equal to Bad in the US but then there was a pretty big drop to HIStory. but i can understand not including it.

i remember seeing, like, an MTV News segment about stores full of racks of unsold copies of HIStory due to demand being much lower than anticipated

Doctor, would you really consider BS' singles success as modest? Only "Hang in Long Enough" didn't make the top five.

ok made some adjustments

Garth Brooks, Sevens (10x platinum)
Celine Dion, Let's Talk About Love (10x platinum)
Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue (8x platinum)
Bon Jovi, New Jersey (7x platinum)
Eagles, The Long Run (7x platinum)
Boston, Don't Look Back (7x platinum)
Michael Jackson, Dangerous (7x platinum)
Guns'n'Roses, Use Your Illusion I & II (7x platinum each)
Creed, Weathered (6x platinum)
Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavored Water (6x platinum)
Journey, Frontiers (6x platinum)
ZZ Top, Afterburner (5x platinum)
50 Cent, The Massacre (5x platinum)
U2, Rattle & Hum (5x platinum)
Billy Joel, River Of Dreams (5x platinum)
Bob Seger, Against The Wind (5x platinum)
Mariah Carey, Butterfly (5x platinum)
R.E.M., Monster (4x platinum)
Eminem, Encore (4x platinum)
Phil Collins, ...But Seriously (4x platinum)
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, The Art Of War (4x platinum)
AC/DC, For Those About To Rock We Salute You (4x platinum)
Lionel Richie, Dancing On The Ceiling (4x platinum)
Spice Girls, Spiceworld (4x platinum)
U2, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (3x platinum)
Paula Abdul, Spellbound (3x platinum)
Def Leppard, Adrenalize (3x platinum)
Huey Lewis, Fore! (3x platinum)
Foreigner, Agent Provocateur (3x platinum)
Rod Stewart, Blondes Have More Fun (3x platinum)
Hammer, Too Legit To Quit (3x platinum)
New Kids On The Block, Step By Step (3x platinum)
Nickelback, Dark Horse (3x platinum)

Added Dangerous, and accepting But Seriously because the singles were huge but do have nothing on Invisible Touch and No Jacket Required, yes they still had We Can't Dance but they were now a huge adult contemporary band instead of THE pop act. still sticking with Encore for Eminem and I need some hard fucking evidence to put a Van Hagar album on here - 5150 is the one after the biggest hit, but commercially it signaled no decline. OU812 is the last one with a pop top ten, but FUCK had "Right Now", and they danced across the top spot of the Mainstream Rock Charts straight through to Cherone. Speak up if you have some concrete information, no more just mumbling about "events."

yeah, it doesn't feel like most of them have had the staying power of his earlier hits, aside from "Another Day In Paradise"